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Hurricane Isaac; Isaac Unleashes on Gulf Coast; Rescues in Plaquemines Parish; Isaac Still Serious Threat to Louisiana; Condoleezza Rice Speaks at RNC Tonight

Aired August 29, 2012 - 13:00   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

SUZANNE MALVEAUX, CNN ANCHOR: We're following Hurricane Isaac. I want to go to a live event that is taking place. This is Billy Nungesser, he is the head of Plaquemine's Parish in Louisiana. Let's listen in.

BILLY NUNGESSER, PRESIDENT, PLAQUEMINE'S PARISH (live): -- Plaquemine's Parish. I, myself, it doesn't matter about the damage to a home, but to give you an idea, I have more damage from this storm than I did from Katrina. And I rode out Katrina. In my home, the water piled up on the east bank of Plaquemine's Parish that we used to brag about because they never got water before. The Perez property didn't flood from Katrina. Woodlawn where the school was built, the highest ground in the east bank, both of them are covered in water today. So, those areas that didn't flood for Katrina were flooded for this event. We will make every effort to rescue all of the people, and then we'll begin the rebuilding process for the east bank.

But we're not out of the woods yet. We're looking at the new models, because this storm has gone back and forth and hung around a lot longer than anyone expected. We're looking at the rest of the effects as it shifts around it will have on the west bank levees. And we're reassessing the storm surge models working closely with Kevin Davis at the governor's office and go set to model and see what risk we have on the west bank. And as soon as we have all of those numbers and calculations, we're going to take a look at what we need to do, and if we can do anything to prepare the west bank levees on the backside for this storm as it swings around and starts to blow water against those back levees.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Sir, how do you explain that this station seems worse than (INAUDIBLE)? How do you explain it?

NUNGESSER: It's a good question. I can tell you this, if that's a category one storm, I don't want to go through anything stronger. I have never seen wind and rain with no breaks.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: And, you know, Billy Nungesser comments are so --

MALVEAUX: All right. That's from our affiliate WWAL. I want to bring in our Chad Myers to talk a little bit about the Plaquemines Parish here. Why is it so rough going for the folks who live in that area?

CHAD MYERS, AMS METEOROLOGIST: They are the first line after the Gulf of Mexico. The wind and the rain and every -- 106-mile-per-hour gusts not that far south of Billy Nungesser's house last night when I was here. The wind comes off the Gulf of Mexico, through the bayou, and then hits the back levee. The back levee stops the water from getting from the bayou into the east bank. Then there's another levee that stops the Mississippi River from getting to the east bank. So, you have a little swimming pool there, that is the east bank. Let me walk you over here. I think we can get over here.

MALVEAUX: Yes, I want to see this.

MYERS: Oh, yes, I just want to tell you how this all happened and why these people are in such bad shape and why the water is going to continue to pour down that east bank because there's just no place else for it to go. All night, this wind has been pouring in like this, just pushing water right up against the back levee of the east bank of the Mississippi River. Now, let me tell you what that means. Here, all the areas -- everything that's in red here, those are all the areas that are protected by levees. The east bank is right here, it goes all of the way down to Mississippi. But this is the area right now that is flooding unprotected and we knew that that was going to happen. Let's fly in and I'm going to just try to describe what has happened so far. We have the bayou over here, this is just water. This is saltwater to marshes, it's in and it's out.

And when the high tide comes in, it's sale water. When it's not, it goes out and so on. The water has piled up here along the -- this is the back levee that keeps the water out of this area here. This is the front levee. This is the Mississippi River levee. At some point in here to here, there is a break or at least an overwashing with washing out. So, the water is pouring in here. You see all of those people that have been carrying out, they live right there, and also down toward English turn and as far south here as Waite. The whole area is going to fill up because there's nothing else that can happen. We have a levee on this side, and a levee on this side, and a break in one of them, the water's going to fill up like a big swimming pool.

So ,let's fly you in and kind of give you an idea of the lay of the land. There's the water. The water has been pushed here. This is not -- this is an old picture obviously. Last night, that was filled with water, all saltwater, breached over this levee, come over the top here, and it's now in here, down into the I-39. This is Highway 39. Right here is Port Braithwaite. This is where all these people were being rescued from. You saw all those pictures. Just tremendous amounts of water right through here. And let me show you what it looks like -- what a home looks like. We'll take you down here toward English Turn. But this is what the homes look like here. They are on ground level. They are single-family, they are ground- level homes, so if the water is up to the -- they said nine feet high, that's about nine feet high right there. If you're not on the roof or in the attic, you are in trouble in parts of the east bank.

MALVEAUX: Is there any way, Chad, to get out of the area? Because you described that so well. When you take a look at that -- MYERS: By boat.

MALVEAUX: It's by boat?

MYERS: By boat.

MALVEAUX: That's the only way?

MYERS: The water is over the road, Highway 39 is completely inundated. The only way to get in and out of there would be by a boat. The boats are going in, National Guard, other people -- volunteer boats going in rescuing people off the tops of these homes.

MALVEAUX: And Chad, I want to ask you about another thing we're learning. The coastal Highway 90 we are told is washed out. This is Gulfport, Mississippi. What is the significance of that? That sounds like that could create a lot of problems.

MYERS: Yes. Let me just -- let me see. If you can get to -- Justin, if you can go to Gulfport, and we'll show you what's -- 90 is the road that goes all the way from Biloxi all the way over toward Gulfport past Christian -- past Christia , and then across the river over toward Bay St. Louis. So, somewhere in here -- this highway, Highway 90, go all the way through here, Gulfport, back over there would be the Biloxi casinos, and somewhere in here, the road is completely washed out from the over wash that has come in. We do know that about six to nine feet of surge has come from Gulfport all of the way over back toward Bay St. Louis. Somewhere, that was too much. And you put 10 inches of rain up here, and you put a bunch of wind here, and you have the water fighting each other, one trying to go one way, one trying to go the other way, and it piled up and washed the road out.

MALVEAUX: All right. And you know what? We're going to back to Louisiana. This is Braithwaite, Louisiana. We've got some new pictures from our affiliate, WWL. This is a rescue, a guy that was rescued off his roof. Let's listen in.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: -- precious to him there as he works his way off the roof. You can see his legs are a little bloody. Definitely exhausted but he was in actually in really good spirits, cracking jokes, certainly not happy about what he just went through. And he reminded me that he lost his home in that same area there seven years ago on this date to Katrina.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

MALVEAUX: Wow. The irony and tragedy of that. That -- the anchor was saying that that man actually lost his home seven years ago to the day when Hurricane Katrina hit. Now, he is dealing with Hurricane Isaac. And it certainly looks like that water was up to the rooftop and he was spared. He was very lucky, actually, to be able to be rescued off of this roof. But this is the area that we are talking about where people are in desperate dire need of rescuing, because of the water level, because of the flooding, and because of what Chad had described as people who essentially are trapped in their homes. This is a place, obviously, that should have -- that was evacuated and -- but some people decided that they would go ahead and try to brave it out and weather the storm. A very, very dangerous situation there.

And we know, too, that Isaac is kicking up waves, soaking up the Mississippi Gulf coast. That --Gulfport, for instance, officials saying the city could get a foot and a half of rain here. Literally, I mean, you can listen to it. You can hear it. This is rain that's been coming down in sheets and in buckets, and just flooding the streets and some of the homes there. I want to bring in our David Mattingly, he is riding out the storm in that area, and he's joining us by phone. And David, describe for us, first of all, what the conditions are like right now.

DAVID MATTINGLY, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (via telephone): Well, Suzanne, they really haven't changed since I last talked to you on the air. The wind is still whipping through here. Tropical storm force winds blowing the rain in. The visibility is very bad just because there is so much rain blowing around, it's hard to see here. But we are still continuing to wonder when we will see some kind of relief. The wind has shifted some. It's been blowing straight out of the east and now it's shifted where it's blowing some out of the south. That suggests this storm is moving out the way it's supposed to. But authorities here thought this would all be done by now and they'd be in the assessment and cleanup stage of the storm by now.

That is not the case. We could be hours, possibly a day, away from seeing that happen. They are very concerned in the state of Mississippi right now about flooding. They've got all this water being dumped inland that has no place to go, because the ocean is up higher, the tides are higher because of the hurricane, it's not letting any of that water drain out. They are expecting some very bad flooding conditions inside the -- well, the interior of the state of Mississippi. I spoke to the governor, he said they may have to be redeploying some of the resources to deal with that. He also mentioned some problems in the city of Waveland on the coast here in Mississippi. He said that there were some people there who were cut off by some of the rising floodwaters. You know, all in all, we're not seeing a storm surge like we saw with Katrina, but we're seeing something that definitely uniques this storm. The fact that it has been in one place for so long --

MALVEAUX: Yes.

MATTINGLY: -- it is going to leave its mark in a very distinct way when it finally gets out of here -- Suzanne.

MALVEAUX: David, we are seeing -- we've been seeing some still pictures -- some incredible pictures of literally like trees that are just going horizontal because of the strong, strong winds. And I'm assuming that the reason that you're are on the phone and we're not seeing you actually on television is because of those winds and the conditions that you were actually facing out there covering the story. Give us a sense of what you are dealing with now and what you are seeing. MATTINGLY: Well, one of the things that you never see when we're on the air here is all the work that goes into putting us on the air in the hurricane. We have to find a very secure place for our satellite truck to sit so that its dish will not blow off -- literally blow off during a hurricane. And the winds have shifted such that our truck is no longer protected and we weren't able to get a signal out, so that's why I am talking to you on the phone. But if you remember, when we were talking last hour, I felt like I was standing in -- next to a beehive and being stung. That's how the rain felt hitting my skin because it was blowing in so hard. That has not changed. There has been absolutely no let off since I talked to you an hour ago, and there's been very little let-up over the -- since midnight of last night when the tropical storm conditions finally rolled into Mississippi. They just have not gone away -- Suzanne.

MALVEAUX: All right. David, be safe. I want to go to Mississippi. This is -- the storm has essentially washed out the coastal highway, we're talking about Highway 90, in both directions now. We understand that there is debris, there is seawater that is covering this road here. I want to go to John Zarrella, he is also on the phone. Tell us the significance of this. What does that look like?

JOHN ZARRELLA, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yes, Suzanne, I'm not that from -- was not that far from where David is the at the hotel. You didn't have to go far, probably about two miles down the road from the hotel here. And we had expected that the westbound lane would be OK, because it was a higher elevation than the eastbound lane which is right down at the water level. And David mentioned how you had the wind shift now coming more out of the south which is driving this water right up onto the highway. The Gulf of Mexico, Suzanne, is literally over -- the beaches are gone -- absolutely are gone. There is no beach left. I am sure it'll reappear when the waters finally subside, but right now the Gulf of Mexico has met Highway 90, it has overwashed, as I say, about a mile or two from here, Highway 90 in both directions, the lower portion of the road and the upper portion which is a little bit higher elevation that moves to the west side.

We were out, we were shooting pictures in it. There are timbers covering the road, there is sand covering the road, and the water is now racing -- because of the way that the wind is driving it, racing down Highway 90 on both sides of the road from east to west. And it's rising in a lot of places along that. So, you have this enormous water, and the Gulf of Mexico, literally, when you stand there and look, you are standing there looking at waves crashing, rolling surf right on the highway and coming over the top of the seawalls there to protect it and on to the highway. We did see some National Guard Humvees that have made it through. But we got to one spot where it was so totally impassable, we had to turn around, you know, and drive back the way we'd come for quite a distance and then make our way inland, and then down and around to get back to the spot in order to video that. And we're hoping that a little later today we'll be able to get that -- those pictures in of what we witnessed there which is still taking place. And many, many sections of Highway 90, you know, are becoming impassable. What we are seeing, Suzanne, is it is becoming worse, more impassable in places. It's not receding, it's still coming up.

MALVEAUX: All right. And it is only expected to get worse. John Zarrella, we appreciate it. We're going to have more following Hurricane Isaac after a quick break.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

MALVEAUX: We're following a number of rescues that are taking place across the state of Louisiana, but one place in particular, that is Braithwaite . And, of course, that is where a lot of people are actually stuck in their homes.

I want to bring in -- this is new pictures -- this is WWL, our affiliate -- where they are taking people, plucking people out of their homes. Their pets as well. Let's watch.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Save the dogs.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: And we got the dogs. Quite incredible, especially since that did not happen during Katrina, more often than not.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: And I think that was a good thing to point out. And a lot of folks -- and we learned so much about people and their love for pets that they will stay with their pets rather than let those pets --

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: That was the number one reason.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: The number one reason people stayed. And this was a survey. This is not just happenstance. They chose to stay during Katrina was to stay with their pets. So now, of course, all the parishes are doing a yeoman's job of allowing the pets to go in some form. And, again, it was this individual's choice to stay.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: And I will say the pets certainly do -- being on that boat and trying to help him and help the rescuers -- it does complicate efforts.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It does.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: And I imagine this was a large scale effort. I could see certainly rescuers saying, you know what --

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: People have to come first.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We cannot take a lot of these pets with us. The dog jumped in the water --

MALVEAUX: You know, another reason why folks in Hurricane Katrina would not leave their pets is because they also knew that those shelters would not take pets, and so they stayed back in their homes. That is also something else that they have learned from seven years ago. Hurricane Isaac, it is testing the levee system, as you can imagine, in New Orleans, which has been rebuilt. So far it seems to be working. But to the south, we are talking about Plaquemines Parish, this is where water actually went over a levee, over top that. It was not a part of this billions and billions of dollars of upgrade here. And we're getting reports now of dozens of folks, they are being rescued after they have been trapped, essentially, by these floodwaters.

I want to bring in Martin Savidge, who's in New Orleans. Tell us a little bit about what we know about some of these rescues. We've seen some of these pictures coming in. Very moving, very touching here. We just saw somebody with their pets.

Marty, I'm going to ask you to hang out there for a moment, just wait with us. The governor of Louisiana, Bobby Jindal, is starting to speaking now. Let's listen in.

(BEGIN LIVE FEED)

GOV. BOBBY JINDAL (R), LOUISIANA: -- and I'm going to use some facts from the National Weather Center.

The storm was almost stationary overnight, making landfalls twice along our coast, including in Plaquemines and Terrebonne. The eye of the storm is drifting towards the west, northwest. We will continue to be affected in the southern part of our state by this storm throughout much of the day.

The National Weather Service is showing five to seven inches of rain, but much more in some cases across a large portion of the south shore already with reports of street flooding that have already started to come in. We are likely to see an accumulated total of between 12 and 16 inches of rain in south Louisiana. But again, in certain areas, it may be even as high as 20 inches.

Tides are going to remain elevated throughout tonight and will start to gradually fall tomorrow. In south Louisiana, we'll have high winds for most of the day with winds gradually decreasing from east to west starting late this evening. We're going to see tropical storm force winds for as long as 24 to 36 hours.

To give you an idea of how much the storm has slowed. It was originally projected the eye of the storm might be around Baton Rouge by 1:00 p.m. today. Now they're projecting that the eye of the storm won't come to Baton Rouge until much later, this evening. Despite that, Baton Rouge is already seeing wind gusts of up to 40 miles per hour. So there is much more coming, not only to Baton Rouge, but to other parts of our state as well.

Just to give you an idea of wind gusts. In Galliano, we are seeing wind gusts as high as 80 miles per hour. And I would differentiate that from sustained wind forces. Those are gusts. I mean those are the strongest winds, but not -- that doesn't mean that the winds are that high over a sustained period of time. We've already seen storm surges up the Mississippi River, which is noteworthy. That shows you the strength of this storm. We expect to see tide surges of six to nine feet west of the Mississippi River, seven to 11 feet east of the Mississippi River, five feet on canals and bayous along the west. That is higher, by the way, in Lake Pontchartrain. The tidal surges they are seeing there is actually going to be higher than what they saw yesterday, Tuesday. So the tidal surges in Lake Pontchartrain and Lake Maurepas would actually be higher today than they were yesterday.

The bottom line is this storm is a very slow moving storm. It will be moving through our state. We'll be dealing with this storm through early Friday morning. And so this is a storm that we'll be dealing with not only through today and tomorrow, but we're going to continue to see the weather effects of this storm, especially as it moves to the northern part of our state.

In terms of different parishes, 56 parishes have now declared a state of emergency. Let me focus on this Plaquemines Parish. On the east bank in Plaquemines Parish, there was overtopping near Braithwaite at a non-federal levee. This is an area where there was a mandatory evacuation called by the parish at noon on Monday. The CPRA is working with local officials. They may actually -- there's not been a breaching at this point in time, but they are considering actually doing a breach intentionally to release water. They've not decided -- they've not made that decision. But the winds have shifted and so they may actually cause an intentional breach to release some of that water and the pressure on that area.

To give you an idea of the background of that levee. There have been federal dollars appropriated for that levee since 2006 that have not been used towards construction. There has been construction on that levee for about a year. A combination of state and local dollars. This was the area, you may remember we talked about the Bisqueen and some of these other protective measures that had been taking place there.

The winds have shifted. They're now coming from the west, blowing the water out of this area. So, again, there are folks looking at whether it makes sense to actually intentionally breach part of that levee to release that water.

We have opened the Caernarvon diversion, taking water from the flooded area into the Mississippi River. The Louisiana National Guard is on site with 14 high water vehicles and 10 boats to help assist with search and rescue efforts. The Department of Wildlife and Fisheries Bravo teams out there, they've got three boats out there as well. There have been unconfirmed reports of anywhere between nine and 40 people who need assistance, who need rescues and need to be taken care of. And that's all along the east bank.

On the west bank of Plaquemines Parish, there is an eight-foot levee. The models are showing there that the water will reach eight feet. So it is expected and the parish president may be doing so as we speak. The parish president is expected to do a mandatory evacuation for the west bank below Belle Chasse, around the Jesuit Bend area south. And again, we do expect that it could be happening as we speak right now.

The parish estimates there are approximately about 3,000 people still there in that area. The National Guard is working with the parish to help with that evacuation. For example, there is a Riverbend nursing home on the west bank that will be evacuate. There are approximately 112 residents there, including 80 residents will be evacuated in wheelchairs, 11 in beds. Eleven will go straight via ambulance to a sister nursing home. The other residents will first be moved to a YMCA, which will be serving -- parishes opening up a shelter at the Belle Chasse YMCA.

They expect to have a capacity of up to 400 slots there. And that's how many people they expect to use that shelter. We've also got additional state resources if more people need sheltering slots. But for the nursing home residents, they're going to use high water vehicles to move first -- patients first to the YMCA. The nursing home staff and supplies will accompany them. Then they'll be able to be moved to a sister nursing home, I believe that's in Kenner. Eleven of those patients will have to go straight by ambulance to the sister nursing home. The ambulances can't get in there. As soon as the high water vehicles. That's why they're doing this in different stages. They're using the high water vehicles for those that can be transported.

It's not advisable to transport these patients on high water vehicles for an extended distance. That's why they're going to take them first to the YMCA. And then if they need to be relocated, again to the sister nursing home, we'll use ambulances to do that as it's safe to do so.

In other parishes in that area -- and just, again, the situation in Plaquemines Parish is changing. And so those are the numbers and the facts. We do have Natural Guard and Wildlife Fisheries search and rescue teams there helping the local law enforcement and other first responders. I'll be going to Plaquemines Parish later today to make sure -- as soon as we're done here -- to make sure they've got the resources they need, not only in terms of search and rescue, but also for the evacuation as well.

Some of the other parishes in the area reporting challenges. In St. John's Parish, they've had to shutdown part of their water system to maintain the integrity of their drinking system. We are working with them to provide water buffalos today. They requested, for example, some water resources from the National Guard. And we're providing that today.

In Terrebonne Parish, they have requested approximately 5,000 tarps. In Tangipahoa Parish, there was a request for a tug boat and operator to be deployed to South Pass in Manchac -- near the Manchac area. Three barges are being held together by one rope. One barge is blocking the South Pass. It has the potential to break away and take out the railroad crossing and potentially impacting the I-95 bridge. And so they are also addressing that barge.

In St. Bernard Parish, the EOC has reported that the landline phone connections are down. They're using satellite phones, cell phone and other means of communication to maintain contact. You will remember, we have 13 National Guard comms teams deployed to make sure we can maintain communications with all of these parishes.

In Gretna, there was a fire at a commercial building that had a private apartment on top of that building. At this point there is one unconfirmed fatality due to that fire. The last contact they had with the person in that apartment was through family member approximately three hours before the fire took place. Again, that is unconfirmed at this point.

In terms of the federal declaration. Yesterday 19 parishes were added to the federal disaster declaration for just federal direct assistance. We've requested today that the federal government add the other 30 parishes, which would cover all 64 parishes in the state, which was the original request. We are still pushing -- and I did ask, again, the president for the federal government to declare a full declaration that would provide additional support for the state and local governments. Governor Bryant had actually made that request even before I did on the phone call. And so I seconded it and I reiterated our request to the president.

In terms of executive orders. I issued an executive order yesterday to left regulations for vehicle escorts, so vehicles with oversized loads can travel through our state quicker, more efficiently, to get supplies and resources, like light poles and electrical workers, to areas impacted by the storm.

Secondly, I also ordered that certain state vehicle regulations be waved so non state employees can travel in state vehicles to escape from the storm or to help with storm response. Third, I also ordered, through executive order, a change in procurement requirements, so that when state agencies contract for goods or services, they can get the critical services they needed to respond to the storm as quickly as possible. Fourth, I issued an executive order this morning to implement some emergency rules suspending certain regulations, relaxing strict compliance with the rules relating to --

(END LIVE FEED)

MALVEAUX: You're listening to Governor Bobby Jindal of Louisiana so far confirming one fatality from a house fire, an apartment fire that occurred. He is also talking about literally ground zero. This is the east bank of Braithwaite, Louisiana, as well as the west bank, talking about up to 40 people who are in need of rescuing. Also on the west bank of that area, 3,000 people who need to be evacuated. It is now a mandatory evacuation specifically talking about a nursing home where people will go and try to get them out as quickly as possible.

We're going to have more developments on this hurricane after this quick break.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

MALVEAUX: Chad, I want to bring you here to talk a little bit about the hurricane. Obviously, ground zero is Braithwaite in Louisiana there. And we heard the governor talk about two places. First, the east bank. He said that there is overtopping of the levee and a mandatory evacuation there. There is still up to 40 people however that need assistance. And now they are talking about intentionally breaching the levee. Why would they do that? Explain this.

MYERS: Two levees. One is the back levee holding out the bayou and one is the Mississippi levee holding out the Mississippi River. So you have a swimming pool, basically, the east bank of Plaquemines Parish. Big levee here and big levee here and people here. And the water has come over the tall levee, which is the east levee or the back levee where the waters is coming out here. I will draw it in a second. But now the water is in here. And the only way to get the water out is to blast this levee so that the water can drain into the Mississippi River.

Let me draw it to show you. And didn't we say that there would be a weak link? Didn't I mention that to you yesterday, Suzanne?

MALVEAUX: Yes, you warned us.

MYERS: And what will be the weak link. Here is what has happened. The Army Corps has built these fantastic walls around the city. But if you don't live inside of the walls, you are in trouble. And that is the breach, outside of the levee wall. All of this water has been piling up against the levee wall, not going into the New Orleans or the Lower Ninth Ward, and so all of the sudden that water is coming here and no place else to go and it breaches the levee that is not fortified.

Going right in to show you the two different levees and what I mean, if you don't understand what I am talking about. There is a levee that stops the water from the bayou here, from the Gulf of Mexico, from pushing in. Right here. That levee, big and tall and strong, or at least it was. And now another levee here that stops the Mississippi River from coming in when it floods. The river is not flooding. It is low. The river has not flooded in a long time. But the water has come over this levee into Braithwaite. There is Bell Chase. And no issue here whatsoever. All the water is coming down here. If you blow up this levee, and allow the water to go back into the Mississippi, you will relieve all of the pressure and the deep, deep water up here in Braithwaite. That is what has happened and how it will go. Here's where the people are being rescued here. There's the highway, right through there. They'retaking them out and putting them on the other side.

And the other thing is the tornado warnings. One for Gulfport, Mississippi, right now. All of the systems coming off of the Gulf of Mexico right through here are rotating, and all will come up to Biloxi, Gulfport, maybe to Wayland and eventually even to Bay St. Louis. They'll all have tornado warnings. We have already had one tornado on the ground -- Suzanne?

MALVEAUX: Thank you, Chad. Appreciate it.

We have coverage of Isaac throughout the hour. First, you might call it an attempt to show Mitt Romney's softer side. The candidate's wife, Ann, moved the crowd last night at the Republican National Convention when talking about their early years together.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

MALVEAUX: CNN's primetime coverage will continue throughout the day and into the evening at 7:00 p.m. with Wolf Blitzer. Republican vice presidential nominee, Paul Ryan, will speak at 10:00 eastern. Piers Morgan is wrapping the convention's second full day.

I will be reporting live from the Democratic National Convention all week next week from Charlotte, North Carolina.

Don't forget that you can watch CNN live while you are at work. Just head over to CNN.com/tv.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

MALVEAUX: We have dramatic rescues under way in Plaquemines Parish. One woman, just devastated, explains how she escaped through her attic.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED PLAQUEMINES PARISH RESIDENT: At first we tried to leave, but we didn't, because we had nowhere to go. Then, they came on the TV and said that the house is full-up and there is a breach in the levee. And we were trying to leave, but trying to drive in the car, you couldn't see your hand in front of your face. And with me being a diabetic, and I have had a stroke. We were in the house. We stay in a trailer, but --

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: What's it like back there now?

UNIDENTIFIED PLAQUEMINES PARISH RESIDENT: Bad. Water is over the top of the roof. We had to break through the ceiling and come through the attic.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

MALVEAUX: There are some folks who are having a really, really tough time. And she is not alone. Our affiliate, WWL, says that 75 people have been rescued from the flooded homes and rooftops in Braithwaite, Louisiana, in Plaquemines Parish, where there's widespread flooding after water went over a levee shortly after Isaac actually hit.

We are covering everything about Isaac, the impact, and the aftermath and all of this. The CNN iReporters have the cameras and they are out the help us.

The new weekend anchor, Victor Blackwell.

Welcome. You have come to the right time in tracking all of the iReports. It is a huge story. You have seen the pictures. Share them with us.

VICTOR BLACKWELL, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, Suzanne, we have received hundreds of these iReports from people along the gulf coast and all of the states affected by hurricane Isaac, more than 300 of them. We had three of the best from New Orleans.

We will start with a photograph that came in from iReporter of Eileen Romero of this house. This is on south Cortez Street in New Orleans, the mid city neighborhood. She said that, at 8:00 a.m. this morning, she was out driving to find gas for a generator, and she found that this house had collapsed. You can see in the photograph that there is a tree that collapsed on the House, and the gable of the roof is leaning on the house next to it, although, those two houses are still standing.

We have two videos from the storm chaser, Alex Lundnose . And let's look at the first video.

(VIDEO)

BLACKWELL: Of course, you can hear the wind there. This is along Lake Pontchartrain. And he says, the caption of the iReport, that this is good news. He says that the levees are working, and here is why. You look at the video and you ask, how can this be a good thing? Well, here is a layout of what is there. Lake Pontchartrain and the building at Orleans Arena and all the water. It's a public facility so nobody lives there. Then you have the levees and the neighborhoods. Because all of the water is coming in from the lake, the levee is stopping the water from going into the neighborhoods where people live. That is how it is a good thing.

One more thing from Alex Lundnose . And you can see here, also, at the Orleans Marina. Again, you have got all of the wind and the water there from the lake slapping up against the seawall. And these are also public buildings so no one lives there. Of course, we want to see more videos and photographs from what is happening alongside via the gulf coast because of Isaac, but we know that there is rain and flooding on the east coast up to the Carolinas. So if you can safely shoot a video or take a picture go to CNN.com and upload them to the iReport section -- Suzanne?

MALVEAUX: Thank you, Victor. Appreciate it.

The pictures are dramatic, but just listening to the force of the wind there and to see just the dramatic impact that this is making on a community, we appreciate all of the photos and the videos that you are sending to us. Please send more. And again, only if you are in a safe place to do so.

Up next, we will be talking to General Russel Honore. He is the man who brought order seven years ago to New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina. Fast forward to today, and we are dealing with Hurricane Isaac. And he is going to tell us what is working and what is not after the break.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK) MALVEAUX: Isaac made landfall more than 17 hours ago, but the storm is still posing a serious threat to Louisiana and also north.

Retired lieutenant, Russel Honore, led the military relief effort after Hurricane Katrina. He is in Baton Rouge.

And of course, General, it is good to speak with you again. Let's talk about the specifics, because what I am not clear about. You have a wall built around New Orleans and then this place, Plaquemines Parish and Braithwaite, in particular, where you have the overtopping of the levee here and that is the weak point, and could that have been anticipated?

GEN. RUSSEL HONORE, DISASTER PREPAREDNESS EXPERT: Well, Suzanne, it is a case where they are building the subdivision before they built the levee. That levee that has been protecting that subdivision for many years is a private levee. And Mr. Billy Nungesser, working with the government, have decided to go in to build a proper levee there, but it is not done yet. This is a case where the subdivision was built before the levees were put to standard. All of the right things are being done to rescue the people. And remember, all of the early rescues were done by neighbors. The Cajun navy, as we call them, in Louisiana, the neighbors helping neighbors. And now that the National Guard is in there, they will do the organized rescues and the movement of the people from nursing homes as erected by the Parish president. And the plan is working right now.

MALVEAUX: And the governor had talked about the fact that up to 40 people need rescuing in that area. And we are talking about the east bank here. They were intentionally going to breech a levee. Can you explain why they are doing that now, and could that have been anticipated? Could they have handled that better so we don't have this happening now?

HONORE: They have to do that on that same levee. The quickest way to get it out is to breech the levee or bring pumps in to take it out. The most efficient way is when the tides go down, you breech the levee and re-plug it. They know what they're going -- that's the procedure they have done before.

MALVEAUX: West bank of the Parish is what they have done before. Is that something that should have happened earlier a mandatory evacuation in that area?

HONORE: I've been an advocate of that and remain one today. I'm glad the National Guard is there. It's one of the best National Guards in the nation. You'll get them out. I'm still an advocate. we should not have a nursing home inside floodplains. I hope that evacuation happens properly. Nursing homes and floods near Katrina was a nightmare. It was a disaster.

MALVEAUX: We hope that the folks get out there.

We appreciate your time and attention to all of this and your expertise. General Russel Honore. She was a power player the last time Republicans were in the White House. We'll hear what Condoleezza Rice says, whether or not she's actually finished with politics.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

MALVEAUX: Speaking tonight is Condoleezza Rice. She's going to share the stage in Tampa with another woman also rumored to have been on Mitt Romney's short list of possible running mates. A few minutes ago, Rice spoke with Hala about her possible political future.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

CONDOLEEZZA RICE, FORMER SECRETARY OF STATE: I wrote a memoir "No Higher Honor" because I consider it the highest honor to serve in my government. I loved it. I'm not doing it again. One has to know to move on in life. I'm very fortunate to have been the secretary of state, and that's enough.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

MALVEAUX: Hala asked about Syria and whether the United States has done enough.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

RICE: I think we wasted a lot of time in the Security Counsel. Russia and China were never going to go along with the international response. I'm sorry the mission Kofi Annan, for whom I have a lot of respect, died, as well it should have, as he said The United States needs to help rally the powers to put together political frame work --

HALA GORANI, CNN CORRESPONDENT: For military intervention.

RICE: Well, a political framework for a post-Assad regime. And then to help vet and arm the opposition so somebody can stop the slaughter of Syrian people. People say if you arm the opposition it might get worse. Look at what Assad is doing.

(CROSSTALK)

GORANI: -- because vetting a political opposition --

(CROSSTALK)

RICE: No. If we've been doing this for the last year maybe it would be done by now. We wasted a lot of time in the Security Council.

GORANI: What do you do from now on?

RICE: I would hope some of that vetting has been doing. In that case, arm the opposition so they can resist the terror of the Assad regime and resist the Iranian interference of the Syrian people so we can do something about the spillover that's starting to happen to Lebanon, Turkey and Iraq. GORANI: Would you say the U.S. should be arming?

RICE: I think the United States should be participating in the arming of those rebels because we have to remember, and you know this region as well as anyone there are regional agendas but the outside powers that are essentially confessional agendas, Sunnis arming Sunnis, Shia arming Shia. The United States and Europe bring a more balanced approach to the region and so we should be participating in it.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

MALVEAUX: CNN NEWSROOM continues with Brooke Baldwin, who is in Tampa for the convention.

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